Hummingbird Heartbeat
by FinnickOdair-Will-Live-Forever
Summary: Annie has always put every single fibre of her being into becoming a professional cheerleader, no matter how challenging or stressful it may seem at times. Will she be willing to throw away not only only her dreams but everything else that she's spent her whole life working towards for Panem's own QB, the dazzling Finnick Odair? Au. Finnick/Annie
1. Chapter 1

**So basically, like the summary says this is Finnick/Annie. She's a pro cheerleader and he's a football player. I don't own The Hunger Games.**

"Congratulations, recruits!" Mikayla Bronwell yelled the microphone on the podium. "I know that two years can feel like a really long time when you're training for something you've wanted since you were a little girl, but some of you have finally made it! Not all of you will have the honour of graduating to a team, but I want to personally thank you for trying your absolute hardest!"

Annie took a deep breath, attempting to calm her nerves. Mikayla Bronwell was in the same room as her, and Annie's hands could not stop shaking. Mikayla had been a hero of her's ever since she had risen to cheer stardom at age sixteen, in 2001. Annie may have only been six at the time, but she could remember jumping around on the couch trying to copy her routines. Mikayla had won the Cheerleader of the Year award in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. If you asked Annie who the most inspiring athlete in the world was, she would say Mikayla Bronwell every time. Even now that she was twenty eight, she still looked like the blonde haired blue eyed teenager who had first started cheering for the California Golden Bears and had gone on to be one of the Giants' most famous cheerers ever.

"So, the first cheerleader will be going to San Diego!" Mikayla announced. "It's Cashmere Gold!"

Annie wasn't stupid- she'd known from the day she'd stepped into the Elite Academy of Athletic Supporters at age twelve that not all fifty girls and sixteen guys would secure themselves a place on a team. They trained liked crazy and did all that they could, but in the end they didn't get to choose. The teams chose _them_, not the other way round. Annie could only pray that she'd done enough to impress the officials.

"Talia Trescott has been selected by the 49ners!" Mikayla said into the microphone, and a small girl with black hair whooped in excitement. Annie's worry grew as more and more names were announced. If she wasn't selected, she didn't know what she would do. She didn't have a back-up plan.

"And finally, we have a very special announcement to make!" Annie had almost lost all hope by that point. There was only one spot left and an elegant girl with long red hair that could flip circles around Annie was left, as well as a strong boy who had thrown her twenty feet into the air in their first week of training at the academy.

"The Panem Allstars have made a selection!" Mikayla said excitedly. "This is the first time in eight years that they've chose one of the Elite Academy's girls!"

The Panem Allstars were Annie's dream team, and they by far had the hardest cheer squad to get into. She had supported the Allstars football team ever since she could remember. The tiny slither of hope that Annie had left had been completely crushed.

"They haven't been able to find a flyer, and with the season fast approaching they're sounding pretty desperate! So they've asked for…Annie Cresta!"

Annie was surprised to find that she hadn't collapsed on to the floor. Panem Allstars wanted her? _Panem Allstars _wanted _her_? Annie stared at the ground with her mouth dropped open until the girl to her left elbowed her sharply in the ribs. She leapt forwards and all but ran towards the other girls who had been selected.

"Panem Allstars flyer, hey? Lucky girl." Morgan, a boy who had been in a few of her training classes since they were twelve, grinned at her.

"I know." Annie grinned back. "Very lucky indeed."

…

The first thing she noticed when she walked into the Allstars squad training room was the amount of sweating girls and the coach that stood in the centre of the room, yelling at the girls to 'pick it up, pick it up, pick it _up_!'.

"Oh my God." One of the other new girls muttered.

"This is incredible!" The gym was huge, bigger even than the one at the academy. One section consisted of just mats to practice tumbles and stunts, there were balance beams, running machines, exercise balls, weight lifting stations, one of the biggest stereos Annie had ever seen, and one wall that was all mirror. When the coach saw them, she shut off the music and blew her whistle twice. The cheerleaders ran to get into line, and the coach barked at them to be straighter and quicker next time.

"My name," She yelled. "Is Enobaria. But you can call me 'coach'. My squad consists of eighteen females and one male, but if all of you newbies make the cut then there will be twenty two females and two males. We had three dropouts at the end of last season, and two slackers were kicked off the squad. The Panem Allstars require only the best, the brightest, and the healthiest of girls to cheer them on to victory. They require men with the right attitude and the strength to toss the lightest of the girls twenty feet into the air. If I do not think that you meet the requirements and if you are not a good enough cheerleader then I _will _let you go. Understand?"

"Y-yes coach." Annie muttered along with the other new cheerleaders.

"Good. Now get into line." Coach Enobaria blew her whistle again, and they fumbled to get in line with the other cheerleaders. Annie found herself sandwiched in between a girl with dark hair tied back in a long ponytail and the new boy.

"Introduce yourselves." The coach ordered, and the first girl stepped forward.

"Tammy. Frontspot."

"Rachel. Backspot."

"Clove. Vice-captain, flyer."

"Glimmer. Tumbler."

"Louise. Tumbler."

"Marvel. Main base."

Annie quickly zoned out, until the girl next to her stepped forward.

"Johanna Mason, secondary base and head cheerleader."

Annie glanced around the room before stepping forward.

"Um, my name's Annie Cresta. I was picked from The Elite Academy of Athletic Supporters to be a flyer." She said, stuttering on some of the words.

"Best stunt?"

"The basket toss, with a double full twist."

"Well, you and the other flyers can discuss moves later." Enobaria pointed at the boy next to Annie. "Name?"

Once everyone had introduced themselves, Enobaria slowly walked up and down the line. She surveyed each and every one of the cheerleaders, and Annie could feel her knees shaking. How long had she waited for an opportunity like this?

"Alright, newbies. You passed first inspection. Take five for lunch, Johanna and Clove will give you all the details." She said, clapping her hands together once. Annie followed the other cheerleaders through the double doors at the end of the gym, into a small cafeteria. She walked over to the serving ladies with Johanna and the main, bass.

"So, is the food good?" She asked, eager to start up conversation.

"Sure. If you're not Cassidy." Marvel shrugged, picking a tomato salad out of the cold foods section. Annie picked out her own lunch, a chicken Caesar salad.

"What do you mean?" She grabbed a bottle of water and followed them to one of the tables.

"Cassidy's our third flyer and she thinks that being a cheerleader is all about starving yourself stupid." Johanna said, rolling her eyes as she sat down opposite Annie.

"It's _not, _so don't try it." Marvel warned. The girl they had been talking about, Cassidy, slid into the seat to the right of Annie as Clove the vice-captain sat down next to Johanna with a ham, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

"You gonna eat that?" She asked, raising a slender brown eyebrow.

"Um, _yeah_." Clove took an overdramatically big bite out of her sandwich and swallowed it with a smile.

"Gross. You'll get too heavy to lift." Cassidy wrinkled her nose, pushing her lettuce around her plate.

"Newbies, over here!" Johanna yelled, beckoning over the other new cheerleaders. "Enobaria asked us to give you the lowdown, right?"

"The first thing would be maintaining a healthy diet." Clove said, glaring at Cassidy.

"Yeah. Keep up with training- your personal fitness is something you'll have to deal with in your own time. Make sure you know the routines by game day, or there'll be big trouble." Johanna added.

"If you drop me, I'll kill you." Clove said coolly.

"Do not, under any circumstances, become romantically involved with _any _of the players. Things go wrong, it gets messy, and when it's your word or his you'll probably get the boot. You wanna be friends? Great, be friends. We'll be spending a lot of time with them. If Enobaria or I even _think _that you've been messing around with one of those idiots then we will come down on you like a ton of bricks. Understand?" Johanna was scary, but not in the typical cheerleader way. Annie was starting to get a sense of why she was a base.

"Try and be civil to each other. Trust me; I know that it's hard. If you're arguing with your squad mates, then how can you cheer with them?" Clove leaned back in her chair and smiled sarcastically at Cassidy, who rolled her eyes in response.

"Annie- You, Cassidy and I will be working on stunts and lifts with the bases after lunch. The new bases are gonna need to stand back and watch Johanna, Marv, and Leah lift. The frontspots and backspots will be working with Tammy and Rachel, and the new tumbler will be working with Glimmer and Jackie. Everyone else will be undergoing training as usual with Enobaria. If you have any problems, take it up with me and see where it gets you." Clove added, finishing off her sandwich.

The cafeteria door swung open, and two boys in the red and black Panem football uniforms walked in. They both clutched empty water bottles, and their hair was sticking to their shiny foreheads. Annie almost let out a strangled gasp, but managed to hold it in. It was Finnick Odair, Panem's gorgeous captain and starting quarterback and Cato Stone, Panem's star tight end.

"Hey." Cato slid in between Clove and Johanna.

"What are doing in here?" Clove demanded as Finnick slipped into the space on the bench in between Annie and Marvel. His arm brushed Annie's, and she shivered a little.

"Hiding from coach." Cato shrugged, leaning across the table and helping himself to a tomato off of Marvel's salad.

"He's in the worst mood ever. He's had us doing sprints since ten this morning." Finnick groaned. He pointed to Annie's water bottle.

"You mind?"

"No." Annie squeaked. She couldn't seem to stop staring into his eyes. He offered her a smile and took three long swigs from her bottle.

"Enobaria's way worse." Johanna scowled. "She made us do fifteen laps of the gym, two hundred crunches and five minute wall squats as our warm-up. Then after rehearsing for four hours, she made us do fifty sit-ups as our cool down before lunch."

"Yeah? Well Brutus had us jumping rope for twenty minutes yesterday. Then we did one hundred knee-ups, fifty knee-to-shoulders on each leg and then straight leg lifts for a half hour." Finnick said, taking another sip of Annie's water.

"That's nothing compared to being thrown in the air for three hours straight. I have to take vertigo tablets some days." Cassidy scoffed.

"I know that you're not just here to fill up your water bottles, hide from hard work and get on our nerves. What are you doing?" Clove asked, flicking crumbs at Cato.

"Scoping out the new cheerleaders. Surveying their pep power. Checking out the cheers. Seeing-"

"We get it. Stop." Johanna interrupted Finnick.

"You know that signing next week?" Cato asked.

"Yes?"

"Are they going to that?"

"Duh." Cassidy rolled her eyes. "They're cheerleaders."

"I'm Annie. I'm a 'newbie'." Annie said. She smiled and offered her hand to Finnick for him to shake. He took it, and Annie felt a blush creep up her cheeks. She quickly turned away.

"Where is the signing?" Erin, one of the new girls, asked.

"Dallas." Johanna pulled a face. "There's a game there in a couple of weeks."

"Don't say it like that, Johanna. It'll be fun!" Cato mocked in a Texas accent.

"We should really get back before Brutus kicks our asses." Finnick suggested. Cato nodded, and the two boys stood up to leave.

"Here." Finnick offered Annie her water bottle back but she shook her head.

"Keep it." She smiled.

"Thanks." He smiled back, and he and Cato jogged towards the exit.

"Congratulations, newbies. You just survived your first interactions with the Panem Allstars' own reigning idiots." Johanna said, clapping her hands.

"Why are they so _hot_?" Cassidy sighed, completely ignoring Johanna's remark.

"You know the rule." Clove warned.

"I hate the stupid rule." Cassidy frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. Annie found herself agreeing with her. Finnick Odair was not only gorgeous, but had had made her laugh and smiled warmly at her.

"Yeah, me too. Trust me; I'd be all over Cato if it wasn't there." Clove shrugged. "But it is, and now lunch is over so we had better get back to work."

…

"Alright Annie, here's how being a flyer works. We discuss the stunts we want to do with the bases and coach, and then we talk to the tumblers and the choreographers. They're the ones that come up with the routines and work our stunts in." Clove explained. Instead of using the mats in the gym, she had opted to take the girls and Marvel out back to the field that they practiced on before game day.

"I'm guessing that the Elite Academy had you flipping and twirling and learning stunts on your first day?" She asked.

"Yeah." Annie nodded.

"We should start with a cradle, to see what she can do." Cassidy suggested.

"That's a bit basic, isn't it?" I mean, if you want to see what I can do we should start with something a little more advanced." Annie said. Cassidy narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at Annie.

"You know, I know academy girls like you. Think you're better than the rest of us? You're _not_. You're just _rich_." She snapped.

"Back off, Cassidy." Clove rolled her eyes. "Annie's right. Let's start with the stunt you name earlier. The bucket toss one?"

As Annie practiced with the other flyers and the bases, she felt a growing sense of belonging creeping up on her. Cheerleading was her life, and the cheering for the Allstars football team was her dream. She would most definitely _not _be throwing it all away because of one stupid rule and Finnick Odair.

**Okay, so I know that in real life the cheerleaders and football players probably wouldn't even talk to each other all that much but for the sake of this story not boring everyone to tears with four bitch fights a chapter, they know each other and get along (sometimes) but just aren't allowed to date.I hope you enjoyed it. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own The Hunger Games.**

Annie stood sweating with the other girls as Enobaria talked them through the plan of the day.

"The plane leaves at nine thirty am, so if you're not on board by then you can expect to be dismissed from the squad, seeing as this is the biggest charity event of our year so far. You'll attend the team's signing at one pm, and then practice will begin at five pm and carry on until eight. Then at eight forty five, you'll be attending the Dallas v. Panem charity cheer off. Which, by the way, you'll probably lose. That doesn't mean I don't want you to cheer your little socks off, seeing as people are paying to see it. Then afterwards, you mingle with the crowd in your uniforms. When I say 'mingle', I don't mean that you can go home with them." She glared pointedly at Cassidy.

"Hey!" She scowled back.

"The team will be staying in Dallas until the charity game, which is two days from now. You girls will be coming back the day after the signing though, because we don't want _another _cheerleader on cheerleader fight." This time, Enobaria glared at Johanna.

"I feel no shame." She shrugged.

"Nobody ever beats the DCCs in a cheer off, but I want you to come pretty damn close to that victory. You'll be marked on a scale of ten for tricks, timing, presentation, and the overall routine. Don't _try _to do your best- _do _your best. Especially you, academy girl."

Annie sighed and nodded her head. When she came to the Panem Allstars she had expected to be treated liked the other girls, but they wanted her to prove that she was worthy of being on the squad. She hadn't been through all the exhausting audition rounds like the other girls had, and to them that made her seem like someone who got everything handed to them on a silver platter. They didn't know how hard getting a full scholarship and then graduating from the Academy had been, or how difficult it was to even get a tape of your best performances sent off to different squads. Cassidy had reminded her every so often that she was only there because their third flyer had dropped out a few weeks before the pre-season games begun and that Panem had been getting desperate.

"Alright, thirty more minutes of practice and then hit the showers! You don't want to stink up the plane!" Enobaria yelled, and the girls grumbled before heading back to equipment or the mats. Today it seemed that everybody was working extra hard for their trip to Dallas, despite the fact that it was seven o'clock in the morning and they had been there since four am.

"Hey, Johanna." Annie joined the captain on the resistance machines that strengthened your calf muscles. It was a machine that would work well for both of them, seeing as Johanna needed to strong legs to keep from dropping the flyers and Annie needed them to stand tall when she was caught.

"'Sup rookie?" Her hair was plastered to her forehead, and she was pushing her legs up and down on the machine with such a speed that Annie suspected they might fall off.

"Why's everyone so pumped for Dallas? Well, everyone except you." Annie asked, locking her feet into position on the machine next to Johanna's. She started to pump her legs, slowly at first but gaining pace.

"They're our biggest rivals. They're _every _squad's biggest rivals. The other girls see it as a chance to get in a good, tough fight." Johanna's face had gone red, and she pushed her legs faster.

"You'll strain yourself." Annie pointed out. "Why aren't you excited? You like fight."

"Because," Johanna slowed down. "I hate them. They're just too damn _nice _and the whole 'America's sweethearts' thing makes me feel sick. They've been the best for too long, but we can never seem to take them down."

"Well, maybe today we'll beat them." Annie shrugged. She stood up and stretched out her legs.

"Not a chance." Johanna laughed. "But I'll be damned if we don't give it our best shot."

…

Annie had been on a plane before, she used to vacation in France, but she had never been on a plane with more than twenty girls who were gossiping, laughing, and screaming through turbulence.

"They're giving me a migraine." Marvel complained from the seat to her left.

"I know what you mean." Olivia, a twenty five year old tumbler on Annie's right, agreed.

"You think this is bad?" Johanna asked from the seat in front of Marvel.

"Do you not remember last year's Thanksgiving game?" Clove asked, pressing her nose through the gap in the seats.

"That was crazy." Glimmer laughed from the seat in front of Olivia laughed, and Marvel grimaced at the memory.

"I think I ruptured an eardrum that day." He scowled.

"Only because it was your first season." Johanna laughed.

"Hey, it was mine and Clove's first too and we didn't complain about the noise." Glimmer shrugged and unbuckled her seat belt so that she could turn around and face them.

"Whatever Johanna. You just think you're better than us because this is your third, and we've only done two." Marvel poked her in the back of the neck teasingly.

"Are we all going to ignore the fact that this is my fourth?" Olivia smirked. "So you should follow Annie's example and shut up."

"She hasn't said anything because it's her rookie year." Clove said, raising an eyebrow. "We would destroy her."

"Clove." Glimmer scowled.

"It's fine. She's right." Annie laughed. It wasn't fine, not really, but there was nothing that Annie would be able to do until she had proved that she belonged on the squad.

"You have the most flyer potential than I've seen in a long time." Olivia said. "You should be proud."

"I'll bench you." Clove threatened.

"You can't do that. Anyway, I said she had potential. You're better because you're experienced, but don't expect it to stay that way for long."

"I'm sure Clove will always be way better than me." Annie said, blushing. Getting the cold shoulder from the vice-captain wouldn't be Annie's ideal way to start the trip.

"Whatever. Just remember that we'll always be better than Cassidy." Clove shrugged again and turned around as the seatbelt sign flickered on.

"Guys, we're landing. The nightmare is over." Marvel grinned, gripping the armrest of his seat excitedly.

"Dallas, here we come." Johanna sighed, and buckled up for landing.

…

Finnick sighed and leaned back in his chair after signing his thirty eighth autograph of the day. Usually, he loved meeting and greeting fans. The ones who followed the team cross-country were his favourite kind and usually the fans in other states made him happy because it meant that they had country-wide support, but today he was just bored. There was something about Texas that Finnick didn't like. Maybe it was that they were about to face one of their biggest rivals, or maybe it was just the accents. He wasn't really sure.

"Hey." He greeted a teenage boy who had come for an autograph. The starting team for the game in two days' time were sat in a line behind a long table signing autographs. Some of the players had a few people in their lines, and others only had one or two. Players like him, Cato and Gloss, who was one of the best linebackers they'd had in five years, had lines of up to twenty people at a time. On the other side of the room, people were hording in and queuing for miles to get signatures from the Cowboys.

"This is shit." Finnick muttered as the boy went on his way. He felt a rough punch to the back of his head, and turned around to glare at the cheerleader who had hit him.

"Be nice." One of the older cheerleaders hissed. Her name was Kelly, or Kayla, or something like that. He looked along the line of red and black clothed cheerleaders. He spotted Johanna, who was glaring at the DCC girls, and Clove stood with the newbie he had met a few weeks ago in the cafeteria. He could barely remember the encounter, training had been a bitch that day, but he had remembered that she was pretty and had given him her water.

"Um, hi." The girl at the front of the line cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Right. Sorry." Finnick mumbled, and signed her Panem Allstars baseball cap.

"That's not even my number." He pointed out to the next guy in the line. He pointed to Gale Hawthorne, one of the offensive linesmen. "That jersey's his."

"Well, maybe I want you to sign it." The boy retorted. He looked about seventeen, and looked like your typical Texas rich boy.

"Well, what's the point?" Finnick rolled his eyes.

"So that I can laugh at your idiocy." The boy snorted. "How dare you bring your team here, thinking that you're better than us?"

"We're here for a charity game, dumbass." Cato said from the seat next to Finnick.

"Boys, boys, boys!" Izabelle Barnes ran over to them, smiling warmly. "Come on now Finn, sign the jersey and move onto the next fan. We wouldn't want any trouble."

She was always running in to help out in sticky situations. She always travelled with the team, wherever they went. She said it was because she was the team owner's daughter and that her daddy wanted reports, but most people knew it was really because she wanted to make sure that her boyfriend Finnick didn't get into too much trouble.

"Whatever." Finnick reluctantly signed the jersey, and the boy walked off to join another queue.

"Was that really so hard?" Izabelle snapped. "You have reputations to hold on to, Finnick."

"Iz, the guy was a jerk." He sighed and started to tap his pen against the table.

"I don't care, Finnick! You have to greet them nicely!" She snapped, before turning on her heel and flouncing off to talk to Coach Brutus.

"Bitch." Cato muttered, signing an older woman's poster for the signing.

"Easy, man. She's not so bad." Finnick signed one more autograph before standing up, almost pushing his chair into the cheerleader stood behind him.

"I'm taking a break." He announced, and pushed his way down between the line of players in their chairs and the cheerleaders behind him. His eyes met Annie's, but she quickly looked away.

"Cheerleaders are supposed to smile." He joked as he walked past her, earning himself an elbow to the ribs from Johanna.

"Bitch."

…

"One wrong move and I will kick your ass so quickly you'll think I was a tornado. We are _not _going down without a fight, even if it means I have to kick all you newbies off the squad for putting one foot wrong." Johanna yelled as she and the others got ready for the cheer off. Enobaria, who was stood in the corner, nodded in approval at Johanna's little speech.

"Alright Annie, you haven't had your first make-up crash course yet so let me give you a hand." Glimmer smiled at her from the make-up table next to Annie.

"Go ahead." She spun her chair around as Glimmer picked a red lipstick.

"This will look with your skin tone, seeing as you only went with minimal fake tan. You might look pale if you're next to Cassidy, so steer clear." She nodded towards Cassidy, who had gone for the darkest shade that she could pull off when they had been spray tanned earlier.

"Is that a bad thing?" Annie asked after Glimmer had applied her lipstick for her.

"No. You look more natural. Also, the lipstick matches the uniform." The squad were dressed in red shirts that cut off just before the belly button with players' numbers printed in black on the front and back. The also wore red shorts with that had a black waistband and the same numbers that were on their shirts written in black on the sides. Glimmer's number was eighteen, which Annie didn't really recognize. Her's was twelve, which somebody had told her was Gale Hawthorne's number. Clove had number two, Cassidy has Gloss' number one. Johanna's number was four- as head cheerleader she had the captain of the football team's number, which happened to be Finnick Odair. Who, by the way, had a girlfriend that Annie thought had treated him like crap at the signing.

"We'll go for black eyeliner and subtle red eye shadow. They're team colours, and all." Glimmer dabbed a brush into the eye shadow pot and Annie shut her eyes.

"So, what other classes will I have to take?" Annie asked as Glimmer applied it to her eyes.

"It depends really. We have classes on things like dealing with the media and etiquette. But we also have classes for dance and tumbling. If you're really struggling with something, we've got professionals that you can hire for some one-on-one lessons." Glimmer handed Annie the black eye pencil so that she could apply the eyeliner herself. While she was doing so, Glimmer selected a light bink blush for Annie.

"Perfect." Glimmer grinned once they were done, Enobaria blew her whistle, and the girls lined up behind Johanna and Clove.

"Remember girls, this may be for charity but I want you to _fight_." She ordered. The audience started clapping, and they pushed through the curtain to get to the stage.

They didn't win the cheer off, but Johanna seemed relatively pleased with their score. Well, as pleased as she could have been after a loss. They had scored eight out of ten for their tricks, one of which had involved Annie flipping down from the top of a pyramid to be caught by the newest base boy. They had scored ten for their timing, eight for their presentation, and nine for the overall routine. They had ended up with a score of thirty five out of forty, and the Dallas cheerleaders had scored thirty seven. It was close like they had wanted it to be, and a fair fight. Johanna hadn't even _tried _to trip their captain as she ran onto the mat covered stage.

After showering, re-applying their make-up, and putting their uniforms back on, the squad were allowed to join the party. A band had now taken their place on the stage.

"Look at them." Johanna sneered at three of the dancing Dallas cheerleaders. "Think they own the place."

"Well, it _is _their state. We're guests here." Marvel pointed out. His and the other boy's uniform consisted of red pants with two black stripes going down the sides, and a t-shirt style red spandex shirt with the Panem Allstar's logo, a black five pointed star speckled with red dots, printed in the middle and a black neck line.

"Shut up." She snapped. Annie cast her eye over the dance floor.

"We should be dancing." She suggested. "We're cheerleaders."

"Great idea, rookie! We'll show those damn Cowboys who the real boss is." Johanna grinned venomously and grabbed Annie and Marvel's hands to drag them onto the dance floor. A fast song was playing, and they started dancing wildly. Cassidy and Clove joined them, and so did Glimmer and the new boy who Annie learnt was called Michael. They shook their heads to swing their hair and did complicated footwork that they only learnt after years of practice. Annie was having such a good time jumping up and down and singing along with the band that she didn't notice the dancing couple behind her until she danced straight into them.

"Whoa!" The boy staggered backwards and she almost died when she realised it was Finnick.

"Do that again and I'll have you dismissed!" The girl snapped. Annie recognized the dark brown hair and blue eyes from the signing.

"Iz, she didn't mean to. Calm down." Finnick rolled his eyes and turned to Annie. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine." She stepped backwards as he reached for her. "I have to go."

She readjusted her shirt and weaved her way through the thick crowd of people, thinking of getting air and going home, and how she barely even knew the boy but Finnick was hurting her a little anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been ill and school's kicking my ass, and I've only just gotten inspiration for this. I know what I want to happen, but the early chapters are always the hardest for me. Oh and if anyone's wondering, I've turned Panem into a state for this fic. It's somewhere near Florida. I don't own The Hunger Games.**

Annie stifled a yawn as scanned a bread loaf and bagged it for the customer, a young man in his twenties.

"So, what brings you here so late at night?" She asked, handing him the bag.

"I'm an insomniac." The man replied with a shrug. "I figure you are too. Why else would you work this shift?"

Annie sighed and checked her watch as the man left the store. It read twelve thirty, which meant there was only a half hour left of her shift.

"No. I'm just crazy." She muttered.

"Oh, cheer up." Katniss rolled her eyes at her co-worker. "_You _only work two days a week."

"Yeah, and this stupid seven till one shift is the only thing I can fit in around practice! If it wasn't one of Panem's requirements, I wouldn't even _be _here." Annie sat down in the chair that was slid in behind the counter.

"I work it six days a week. I think you can man up for Friday and Saturday night shift."

"Oh, come on Katniss. Cut her some slack. Rich girls _always _complain about the workload." Madge laughed.

"You would know." Katniss snapped.

"Kat, come on, be nice." Peeta, the head baker for the in-store bakery, grinned.

"I was kidding." Katniss shrugged, but she'd been right. Annie and Madge both came from rich families, and only worked part time. Madge worked so that her father wouldn't cut her off, and Annie worked because the Panem Allstars wouldn't let her cheer for them if she didn't have a job. Peeta worked because he wanted the experience to set up his own bakery, and Katniss worked to support her mother and sister. How the surprising group of people ended up working the same seven PM to one AM shift at Walmart and eventually becoming friends, no one quite knew.

"So how's the whole NFL cheerleading thing going?" Peeta asked. Annie thought that he was easily the nicest worker at Walmart, like, _ever_.

"Hasn't it been a month now?" Madge asked, leaning on the counter to file her red nails.

"Yeah. It's going great. Enobaria's been kicking my ass, but Johanna and Marvel have got me flying higher than I ever had before. It's so amazing, cheering at games." Annie gushed.

"Any cute guys?" Madge smirked and waggled her eyebrows.

"It's a football team, Madge. Of _course _there are cute guys." Annie rolled her eyes.

"I thought the cheerleaders couldn't date the players." Katniss frowned, letting herself out from the cashier space to stack the shelves opposite with cans of baked beans.

"We're not." Annie shrugged, re-ordering the dividers.

"Doesn't mean she can't look." Madge winked at Katniss, who snorted and turned away.

"That's a bad idea."

"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Katniss. Just because you're hung up on Peeta doesn't mean that Annie can't do some 'window shopping'." Madge laughed. Katniss and Peeta both blushed furiously.

"Madge, don't." Peeta insisted, the colour not fading from his face.

"Sorry." She grinned, but the mayor's daughter was anything but apologetic.

…

Annie sighed as she applied red lipstick, watching her hand in the mirror at the training gym bathroom. Wearing full make-up for training was a nightmare, but if it prepared her for the big games then it was something she couldn't avoid.

"Sorry. No whores allowed in the training facility." A male voice sounded from next to the door. Annie spun around, eyes narrowed, only to come face to face with her childhood best friend.

"Parker!" She grinned and launched into his arms.

"Hey, Annie." He laughed, hugging her back.

"Why are you in the ladies' room?" Annie asked suspiciously, pulling back.

"I carried you on my shoulders for six years; do you really care that I'm in your bathroom?" Parker asked, raising a dark eyebrow. He looked exactly the same as Annie remembered from the graduation. His dark hair was spiked and held in place with gel, and his blue eyes twinkled playfully.

"What are you doing here? Like, in Panem. Not the ladies' room." Annie laughed. Parker slung an arm around her shoulders and steered her out of the bathroom.

"I'm studying in Maryland and thought I'd come visit you on your one month anniversary." He shrugged.

"You? Studying? I find that hard to believe." Annie smirked. Parker had been her best friend ever since he pushed down the boy who stole Annie's juice box at aged four. They had gone up to the cheer academy together and when Parker wasn't selected by a squad, Annie hadn't really heard from him.

"Yeah. I'm majoring in cheer. I'm thinking that I'll audition for the Ravens next season and see where that takes me. Hopefully after a season or two I'll find an Allstar team to join." Parker explained, sitting down on one of the soft mats by the wall. Allstar cheerleading was a dream that a lot of the younger cheerleaders for the NFL shared. Annie was happy with Panem Allstars, but for people like Johanna and Clove and now apparently Parker, there wouldn't be enough cheer in their life until they were cheering as a squad in worldwide cheer events as an Allstar squad, not just flipping for touchdowns.

"Allstar is a lot of work." Annie pointed out, sitting down next to him.

"I know, but it'll be worth it. Do you break for lunch soon? I'm hungry." Parker rubbed his stomach thoughtfully.

"It's ten o'clock!" Annie laughed.

"Cresta! Get off the mats and start doing laps!" Enobaria yelled from the other side of the gym, blowing into her whistle for effect.

"We'll talk later." Annie promised, before standing up and stretching out legs. She flashed Parker another grin before starting her laps with the other squad members.

…

"Faster, Odair! Stop working out like the little girl you pretend to be and start pumping iron like the starting quarterback you are!" Brutus screamed at Finnick as he spotted him.

"Sir, yes, sir." Finnick grunted, extending his arms and bringing them down at a faster rate.

"Come on Odair, you're better than this! Do you want to beak the Steelers next week?!" Brutus asked. Finnick didn't reply, he just pumped the weight faster.

"I _said_ do you want to beat the Steelers next week?! Answer me, dammit!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Alright Odair, you're done. Next!" Brutus called for Gloss, his next victim, as Finnick rolled onto the floor.

"Uhh." He groaned into the mats.

"That looked rough, man." Cato pulled him to his feet.

"A half hour doing weights with coach Brutus? Just fucking kill me next time." Finnick sighed, rubbing his hands down his sweaty face. Their gym sessions were brutal, but Finnick normally enjoyed it. Today, though, he just wanted to be out on the field.

"Oh, man up. We all have to go through hell at some point. Anyway, I'm sure Izabelle hates a complainer." Cato grinned, earning himself a punch to the head from his team mate. They walked up to treadmills and upped the speed. This part of the sessions was usually where they ripped muscles trying to outdo each other.

"Trust me, she doesn't." Finnick rolled his eyes, starting out at a gentle jog.

"I don't understand why you stay with her." Cato jogged alongside him.

"I don't need you to understand it; I just need you to accept it. I know what the guys on this team think about her, and I know that dating the owner's daughter is a dangerous game. I don't know man; it's just…When I look at her I see the girls she used to be when I first met her in high school."

"You never told me you met in high school." Cato frowned, running a little faster.

"We used to hang out a bit. She was quiet, she got straight A's. Nobody really expected us to be friends, but she was easy to be around. Everyone was pressuring me about college scholarships and football and grades, but she was just…There. A friend that didn't judge and despite what everyone thought, she was _fun_ and sweet. We got together the summer after senior year. Then when I wanted to drop out of college she knew that I wouldn't be able to play football for a while and she pulled some strings with her dad. They agreed to assess me, and that's how I got drafted early. She basically saved my career." By the time Finnick finished speaking, both he and Cato were sprinting.

"And now you feel like you owe her?" Cato asked between pants.

"Kind of, but that's not why I stay with her. I know that she can be a bitch sometimes, but it's only cause she's stressed so much. I look at her and remember who she used to be, and I hope she becomes like that again." Finnick said, breathing heavily.

"Dude, you're only nineteen. Just because she got you drafted two years early doesn't mean you have to stay with her for the rest of your life. She's obviously changed." Cato managed to gasp the words out.

"I never wanted her to change." Finnick admitted. "I'd also like to point out that you've been drafted early too. Two years early, because I asked her to pull the same strings that got _me_ assessed for you."

"So we're young. That's even more reason for you to not stick with her. You may not see it but she's making you unhappy, Finn." Cato said, punching the emergency stop on his treadmill at the same time Finnick did.

"When she's not stressed she's great to be around." Finnick tried to reassure Cato as they walked to the cafeteria to fill up their bottles.

"You love her?" Cato asked, but Finnick didn't reply.

…

"So, Parker…You come here often?" Cassidy batted her blonde eyelashes at him and pursed her lips as she pushed away her salad sandwich.

"Oh, please." Johanna snorted.

"Try something from this century next time, Cass." Clove rolled her eyes at her fellow flyer.

"I'm confused." Parker frowned.

"She's hitting on you, idiot." Annie slapped him on the chest. Lunch just hadn't come quick enough for her. Fifty push ups, ten minute wall sits, squats and stunt practice after a night shift at Walmart practically killed her.

"Don't feel special." Glimmer cut in. "She'd pounce on a keg if she thought a six-pack had gone into it."

"I'm sensing a pattern here." Marvel narrowed his eyes and nodded to the doors. "That's the third time this week."

"Everyone needs water." Annie shrugged as Cato and Finnick walked by them with empty water bottles, having what seemed to be quite a heated conversation.

"Hey, Odair! Not got a water fountain in your gym?" Johanna snapped. "Stop invading our lunch hour."

"I'm trying to convince Cato that we should invite your for a game of football on your training field. The gym's boring me." Finnick shrugged, sitting down next to Johanna. He picked up her unopened water bottle and replaced it with his empty one.

"And _I'm _trying to convince Finnick that Brutus will bench us if we try that again. Remember what happened last time?" Cato asked from his standing spot behind them, raising an eyebrow at Finnick.

"What happened?" Annie asked.

"Johanna broke Gale's arm, Clove needed ten stitches, Cassidy kicked a guy in the shin and Brutus made me and Cato scrub all the workout machines in the gym." Finnick shrugged. "But it would so be worth it."

"We're not interested in getting into a stupid game of football with pro players." Clove rolled her eyes at them both.

"Afraid of a little challenge are you, Clo?" Cato mocked, grinning wickedly.

"Hell no." Clove narrowed her eyes at him. "And neither are you. So we'll meet you on the training field, but this time we'll be doing _our _sport."

When Annie met Johanna, Clove, Cassidy, Glimmer, Marvel, Finnick and Cato on the training field they were already arguing.

"Cheerleading is way harder than playing football!" Cassidy was yelling at Cato.

"We sweat through fake tan, foundation, lipstick, eye shadow and blush whilst freezing our asses off and making it look glamorous!" Glimmer stomped her foot angrily.

"Think we should cut in?" Parker asked, but there was no need.

"Annie's here, we can get started." Johanna tossed pom-poms to Finnick and Cato. "Just copy what we do."

The girls and Marvel lined up, leaving the other three boys to watch them with raised eyebrows. Johanna hoisted Clove onto her shoulders and Marvel took Annie. Glimmer assisted Cassidy with her high jumps and backflips, before tumbling circles around them.

"Hold that V!" Cassidy yelled as Glimmer hoisted her into the air. Being a tumbler meant that she had the muscle to lift Cassidy, who wasn't exactly heavily.

"Dot that I!" Clove yelled.

"Rock that C-T-O-R-Y!" Annie finished.

"The red and black are here to attack!" Glimmer yelled.

"Say it loud!" Johanna cheered.

"And say it proud!" Marvel finished off the cheer, and the three flyers flipped out of their holds before they all entered into a complicated dance routine that made Parker nod and grin in approval.

"Think you can give that a go? We're using it at the game next week." Clove asked, breathing heavily.

"Is that Brutus calling?" Cato asked, raising a hand to his ear.

"You know, I think it is." Finnick nodded his head in exaggerated agreement.

"You know girls, we'd love to stay. Honestly, we would, but Brutus is calling and you know what he's like." Cato apologized as they slowly started to back away.

Then they turned away from the cheerleaders and ran like hell for the safety of the gym.

**So I've just realised whilst writing this how confusing I've made it by naming the football team Panem Allstars and then saying that some of the cheerleaders wanted to join Allstar squads. Basically, Panem Allstars is the basic team name and then an Allstars squad is a squad of cheerleaders that basically cheer in competitions pretty much like a dance contest, not attached to a team. Sorry if I confused anyone and sorry if you didn't find it confusing and my explanation was useless. ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own The Hunger Games.**

Annie jogged steadily ahead of Parker, who was coughing and wheezing as he gasped for a break.

"Fine, but you're totally killing the whole idea of a run, Parks." Annie said, raising an eyebrow at him as he crouched over with his hands on his knees.

"It's been six miles." He panted, before taking a swig from his water bottle.

"Yeah, I know. We have another two to go." Annie said, also sipping at her water. Her breathing was heavier than usual and her face was shiny, but compared to Parker she looked like she'd driven the whole way to their rest stop as opposed to running and sprinting up hills. It was eight o'clock in the morning and Annie had invited Parker on her daily early morning eight mile run. She hadn't counted on him being, for a cheerleader, so out of shape.

"You know, you're pretty unfit considering you've spent the last six years training to become a cheerleader." She shrugged.

"Yeah, well, for some reason my bass instructors never had me go on eight mile runs." Parker glared up at her unforgivingly.

"Suck it up buttercup. Come on, I have training at ten and if I'm late I'll get gym clean up duty." Annie patted him on the back and took off running again. Groaning, Parker ran after her.

"I really hate you sometimes, Angel." Parker said, using her nickname from the academy. She a flown through the air at high speeds and was more innocent than the others, so she received the name willingly.

"I'm not so much of an angel anymore." Annie snorted.

"Yeah, what gives? You've definitely changed. Not necessarily in a bad way, but still…" Parker trailed off as they hit a downhill track.

"Cheering for Panem is different than cheering at the academy. I put in extra training hours, Johanna and Clove toughen me up; I get my face screamed in by coach. I'm still way too nice, but crashing a few Texas and Miami parties don't exactly leave you with the 'innocent' feeling." Annie explained. It was true, she _had _changed. She was till nice- she smiled at old people, she carried her parents' shopping bags, she tied her little brother's shoes- and her innocence hadn't completely faded but the changes were becoming obvious and it only been seven weeks since she joined the squad.

"You're still little Angel cake Annie. Don't forget that." Parker warned as they ran into an area that he recognized.

"I wouldn't dream of it." She flashed him a grin before taking off in a sprint, daring him to race her.

…

"That was the most hideous reception I've ever seen!" Coach Brutus barked at the wide receiver. His name was Devon, a good friend of Finnick's despite the thirteen year age gap. He had been with Panem for nine years, the longest of all the players.

"Who cares?" Gale mumbled from Finnick's right. "Caught it, didn't he?"

"You know what Brutie's like. He's all about the aesthetics." Cato shrugged, tossing Finnick a ball. He caught it and almost effortlessly sent it spiralling back.

"Whatever." Gale grumbled. They'd already been on the field for an hour, but their game against Pittsburgh didn't start for another two.

"Cheer up. The cheerleaders will be here soon and that always gets you happy." Cato smirked, throwing the ball back to Finnick again.

"Well, _yeah_." Gale grinned, leaning back on the grass.

"Dude." Finnick frowned. "Have some respect. What they do is tough."

"You've been talking to Glimmer too much, man." Gale shrugged it off.

"Nah, he's right. It's tough shit." Cato shrugged.

"Alright you three worthless sacks of meat!" Brutus snapped, blowing his whistle at them. "Do something productive!"

Izabelle, however, saved Finnick from getting roped into whatever gruesome drill Brutus had planned for them.

"Can I talk to you, please?" She called to him from the side-lines. Her reading glasses were pushed back into her dark brown hair and she clutched a clipboard.

"Course." Finnick jogged over to her and planted a kiss on her right cheek.

"We, um, should do something after the game. If you're not hurting, that is." She said, blushing slightly.

"Is the great Izabelle Barnes asking me out on a date?" Finnick grinned mischievously at her as he slumped down into the bleachers.

"Oh, _do _try and be serious for once please Finnick." She scolded him.

"Right. Yeah, okay." He raked a hand over his face. He looked exhausted- he could never sleep properly before a game. Training had really been taking a toll on him and he couldn't wait for the break he knew he would be getting tomorrow.

"I'm sorry. I'm stressed, it's a habit." Izabelle sighed and sat down next to him, crossing one leg over the other. The word Finnick always ended up using to describe how she looked was _expensive_. He wasn't saying she looked like a hooker or anything like that, but her black, grey and white pencil skirts paired with pinstriped suit jackets always made her look like the wealthy daddy's girl that she was.

"I get it, I do. It just seems like you're always stressed nowadays. You work yourself too hard and I worry about you." Finnick took her hand and pressed it to his lips.

"We're okay, right? I mean, I know I get annoyed a lot of the time and take it out on you…But we're good, right? You still feel the same way about me?" She asked nervously. Sometimes Finnick forgot how young she actually was. The power she had and the way she carried herself tricked him into thinking she was decade older than she was. In reality, she was nineteen and studying business. To her, the Panem Allstars were just a side project.

"Iz, how could you even ask that? I like being with you." He smiled warmly at her before dropping her hand.

"That's a relief. I don't tell you very often how much I mean to you. Hey, maybe tomorrow we can spend the day on my daddy's yacht or something." She looked up at him, and Finnick could practically see the hope in her eyes. She threw words like 'yacht' and 'caviar' and 'island just off the Hawaiian coasts' around like they meant nothing. Finnick was rich, sure, but Izabelle could probably buy New England she was so rich.

"That would be great." Finnick grinned. He wanted to love her, he really did. But she had changed and so had he, and this wasn't high school anymore. It was the real world and people were bound to get hurt, but how was he supposed to leave the girl who had set him free only to accidentally cage him again?

…

"This is such BS. It's hot, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, and I'm pretty sure I've pulled every muscle in my left arm. Oh, and Michael was _totally _groping me at the pre-game show." Cassidy grumbled from the side-lines. She had her head thrown back to soak up the sun rays that hit her face.

"I'm gay." Michael shrugged.

"Even fucking better! I'm so repulsive that only the gay guys want to come near me! The only eligible guy on this damn squad is Marvel, but he's…You know…_Marvel_." Cassidy shuddered at the thought of adding Marvel to her list of conquests.

"Newsflash for you Cass- I don't care." Johanna snapped.

"Maybe if you weren't such a whore you'd actually be able to land a guy." Clove added as an afterthought.

"Oh _please_, I've landed more guys that you've landed triple front flips into splits!" Cassidy sneered.

"So shut up complaining then!" Glimmer sighed.

"They're obviously going to win, it's already 23-3 to us. Why can't we just go _home_?" She whined.

"Dammit Cassidy I will tackle you my goddamn self if you don't _shut. The. Hell. Up._" Johanna warned her through gritted teeth.

Annie smirked to herself, thinking the teammates that she gotten to know recently. Johanna was harsh, but fierce. Clove was scary, but gave great cheer tips. Glimmer was appearance oriented, but super nice. Cassidy was a whiny bitch, but she was great for a party.

"Shit." Clove muttered as the ref blew his whistle for a foul against Panem. One of the players, Annie thought that it was Gale under the helmet, was protesting that his tackle was perfectly legal. The referee shook his head, and sent him off as the Pittsburgh player got to his feet. He threw his helmet down as he stormed off of the field and Annie saw that it was actually Finnick, not Gale. There was blood trickling down his right arm from his elbow to his wrist.

"Crap." Johanna hissed at least thirty times as the home crowds starting booing and throwing things onto the field.

"Alright squad, code B!" Johanna yelled, and they all stood up from the bench.

"What the hell is code B?" Annie asked Glimmer as the other cheerleaders started running into the bleachers of fans.

"We have to get the fans thinking positively so that they don't, like, riot." Glimmer answered before running off after Cassidy. Annie grabbed her pompoms and ran in the opposite direction.

"Alright crowd!" One of the older cheerleaders yelled from three rows above Annie. Her name was Ashlee, or Amy, or something else that started with an A.

"We're gonna win! We're gonna win!" She chanted, and the row of Panem fans chanted with her. Their negativity was fuelled into positivity and soon they were jumping up and down and cheering instead of throwing hotdogs and nachos at the linesmen and refs.

"Hold that V, dot that I, rock that C-T-O-R-Y!" Annie yelled to the row that she had run to. She repeated it until they were cheering with her for Panem.

"Hey there, pretty." A man old enough to be her dad grinned at Annie. She raised her eyebrows in greeting and ran down the row, but not before he pinched her behind. The man's friends all laughed, and Annie blushed furiously.

"Hey Steve!" The guy yelled to someone at the end of the row. "Get her! She likes it!"

Annie glanced to the end of the row at the man named Steve, who grinned back and nodded to his piggish friend. She had to pass one of them to get off of the row, so she decided to go for the one that hadn't already assaulted her. However, she couldn't get past without him patting her on the behind and laughing. Tears stung Annie's eyes as she ran down the steps. She tripped on the last one and slipped. Pain shot up her ankle and she hobbled towards the inside area. She ran through the pain down the team's tunnel and decided that stopping at the medical room would be her best bet. She burst through the doors, her tears starting to fall, and realized that no one was there except for a guy with a bandaged arm.

"Hey." Finnick Odair greeted her as she pulled herself onto the closest bed and stretched her leg out in front of her.

"Um, hey." She greeted awkwardly, and sniffed.

"Hey, what's up?" He crossed the room to stand next to her. He looked too concerned for somebody that didn't even really know her.

"Nothing. I'm fine." She shrugged, but her voice cracked.

"No you're not." Finnick rested a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched away from his touch.

"I'm fine." Annie insisted.

"Who was it?" Finnick asked. Sighing, he sat at the foot of her bed.

"Excuse me?"

"My sister, she's a year older than me, used to cheer with her squad at my high school games. When she came home crying I knew that some guy had tried to feel her up in the stands. I always used to beat the living crap out of them. So, who was it?" Finnick asked again. His sea green eyes were staring so intense that Annie felt exposed.

"Why do you care?" She asked, determined to be stubborn.

"Because you're one of Panem's now. So tell me." Finnick said carefully. He looked worried, and Annie wasn't quite sure why.

"The…The guys at the start of row six, to the left of the squad's benches. And the guy at the very end." She stopped crying, but she bent her good leg up so that she could hide her face behind it.

"Hey." Finnick said softly, but she didn't respond. "Hey, look at me. It's Annie Cresta, right?"

She nodded, still not looking him in the eye.

"What happened to your ankle, Annie? It's looking pretty banged up." She glanced down at it; Bruising had already started to form and it ached.

"I tripped." She looked up, catching Finnick's gaze. The look of protectiveness in his eyes made her want to die of embarrassment. _I tripped_. _How lame_.

"Mind if I have a look? The doctor's not gonna be back for a while." Finnick asked.

"Knock yourself out." Annie shrugged, but it was almost _her_ that got knocked out when she felt Finnick run his hand over her ankle. He was gentle, gentler than she thought someone of his build could be, as he felt for the damage. His hand was cool and smooth and Annie craved more of his touch once he pulled his hand away. It was strange feeling. After all, she barely knew the guy.

"You've got one hell of a bruise forming there Annie, but I think it's just a sprain." He walked across the room and pulled an icepack from the freezer before wrapping it in cloth and pressing it against her ankle.

"When can I cheer again?" She asked, biting down on her bottom lip.

"Few days probably, if you take it easy. I'd say four or five." Finnick ran the pack over her ankle and Annie exhaled softly as it cooled the hot skin.

"Thanks. You didn't have to do this." She smiled a small smile at him.

"Not a problem." Finnick's own smile was warm. They sat in silence for a few moments as he ran the ice pack over her ankle before he broke it with a question. "What made you want to become an NFL cheerleader? It doesn't exactly pay well."

"I was an academy girl." Annie shrugged. She glanced at Finnick, and he nodded at her to carry on. "We're all trained up and at the end of our time there we get specially selected by a squad, no audition required. That is, if you're good enough. I barely got in. The idea is that we start out in the NFL and then go on to pursue other entertainment careers or join professional Allstar squads that travel the world."

"But what made you wake up every day and think 'yeah, I want to be a cheerleader!'?" Finnick asked. It was the kind of question that would make Izabelle purse her lips and frown at him, and he would know that he was inevitably going to receive a scolding after asking.

"When I'm flying through the air or dancing as crowds cheer, I just feel _alive_. It sets me free. That sounds stupid, but knowing that what I do inspires people to win games hypes people so much that a smile splits their faces just gives me the ultimate feeling of satisfaction and freedom." Annie answered honestly.

"What about you? Why did you want to play football?"

"Well, I used to hate it. I sucked when I was fourteen and the other kids laughed at me. Then I met my old high school coach, Boggs, and everything changed. He put in the hours and we discovered that I had a gift for football. I just didn't know how to use it. By my sophomore year I was the starting quarterback and the most popular guy in my grade. It was ridiculous. As soon as I realized that I was actually good at it, I let myself love football. The feeling as the ball leaves your hands, the wind rushing in through your helmet as you make a run, knowing that you scored a touchdown that helped win the game…There's nothing quite like it." Finnick explained as he continued to run the ice pack over her ankle. Seconds after he finished speaking, the doors to the infirmary were flung open and Cato and Gale walked in.

"Johanna's going to kill me." Annie groaned when she realized it was half time.

"Don't worry, we'll say it was my fault." Finnick winked at her.

"She'll kill you too." Annie laughed.

"Hey man, coach wants to see you." Cato clapped Finnick's hand in a high five.

"Aw, crap. He's gonna kill me." Finnick rubbed his forehead and frowned.

"That tackle was totally legal, we all know it. He _is _gonna chew you out for sounding off at the ref, though." Gale said as he wrapped gauze around his right knee.

"Alright, fine. Let me just get Annie sorted." Finnick rammed the ice pack into one of the drawers next to her hospital bed that also contained the things he needed to bandage her ankle.

"Cato, grab her some crutches." He ordered as he carefully bandaged her ankle.

"Thank you, Finnick. You honestly didn't have to this for me." Annie smile at him again, this time a genuine smile.

"Of course I did." Finnick winked at her again as he handed her the crutches. "You take it easy now, Cresta."

"You too, Odair." She laughed and stood to test her crutches out as Finnick and the others left the room, stopping to hold the door for her before going the opposite way down the tunnel.

Spraining her ankle had never been so _interesting _before.


End file.
